Architects are known for returning from travel with more photos of buildings than people and for having an esoteric vocabulary of their own. Of course, these are clichés that are not always true. But something that unites most designers is the tendency to pay attention to each detail that makes up a project, be it the material that covers the facade, the junction between different floors, how the doors open, the type of window frame, how the forms were put together for concreting, and more. But a detail that often goes unnoticed – and that makes a huge difference in interior design – is baseboards.
Today, architecture has become - or is in the process of becoming - more flexible and individualistic to accommodate people's diverse lifestyles and spatial needs. With this adaptation, the residential typology has changed and living rooms have become endangered. Many insist on the need of having a space dedicated to relaxation and leisure, while others claim it is simply a waste of space and money. This debate raised an important question: do we still need living/sitting rooms? In this interior focus, we will look at how living rooms evolved through the years, and how architects readapted and integrated the concept of “gathering space” in contemporary residential architecture.
After the announcement of the selected projects in the categories of Airports, Campus, Railway Stations and Sports, followed by the announcement of the 70 Continental Winning Projects of the Prix Versailles 2021 in the categories of Shops, Shopping Centres, Hotels and Restaurants, there turned out to be a total of 94 new projects competing in the 2021 Prix Versailles World Final.
The annual Prix Versailles awards, created in 2015 to promote a better interaction between the cultural and the economic, announced the 2021 World Selections celebrating 24 projects in the categories of Airports, Campuses, Passenger Stations and Sports.
Urban infrastructures provide comfort to inhabitants and mitigate the risks of disasters such as flooding. Underground systems specifically conceal urban infrastructures from public view and are configured as real mazes under the streets. The distribution of drinking water, urban drainage, sewage, and even electrical wiring and fiber optics in some cases, pass under our feet without us noticing. To this end, the industry developed precast concrete parts for about 100 years that provided construction speed, adequate resistance to force, and durability against time. Concrete pipes with circular sections, in many diverse diameters, are perhaps the most used conduits and are ubiquitous around the world. But there are also those who use these apparently functional elements in creative architectural contexts as well.
In dystopian films, it is a common trope to depict the sky as filled with a thick fog, blocking the sun's rays and bringing a dark atmosphere to the scenes. Whether in Blade Runner or in a Black Mirror episode, the lack of sun commonly represents a future we would rather not live in. The sun provides heat to planet Earth and is a great source of light energy, essential for the survival of many living creatures. We can generate electricity from the sun and still use only a fraction of the energy it provides. Sunlight also regulates our circadian cycle, which affects our mood. But recent forest fires and industrial pollution in some large cities have already made the dystopian blockage of sun a relatively common phenomenon, depriving hours of sunshine from many inhabitants. Concurrently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are living a plot that few science fiction writers could have predicted, and new technologies and solutions have emerged to try to contain the spread of this invisible enemy. Can the sun, or specifically ultraviolet radiation, kill viruses and bacteria? Could it kill the coronavirus?
